Sometimes The Best Efforts At Scheduling Go Awry
By ANN Senior Correspondent Kevin "Hognose" O'Brien
How does a trade show wind up
kicking off on Super Bowl Sunday -- and how does a schedule like
that work out? Scheduling a major event is always a matter of
compromises. The event sponsor needs to consider the likely
schedules of attendees, and the desires of exhibitors. Then there
is a whole other factor -- availability, and suitability, of
exhibit halls. Some are too small, some too large, some booked. The
city counts -- you don't want to schedule a convention in Buffalo
in the Winter Then there's the exhibit hall.
Some cities, like Boston, don't have a decent one. Some are in
crime-ridden inner cities, some have poor parking. A number of
halls have such onerous deals with mobbed-up unions that you can
only put them over on your exhibitors once. Some dates conflict
with other shows in the industry. It's complicated if you want your
show to rotate among major cities -- if what you just did worked,
you can't repeat it.
And then... and then... you can get a good venue, in a good
city, on a good date.
And someone can set a major event on the same date after you're
already locked in. Say, just for the sake of argument, the Super
Bowl.
That's gotta hurt.
But how did it work out? Well, it didn't seem to affect the
morning events at all. Lots of people here. But as the day wore on
the International character of HAI (which is, after all, Helicopter
Association International) became apparent.
"Zere iss not so many of zee Americans here," I heard someone
with a pronounced (no pun intended) German accent say.
"Yes, zey are haveeng some kind of event-sporteeng," a
French-accented voice replied. "Eeet iss zee foot-ball
Americain."
A strong accent from the North of England countered, "This thing
the Yanks play is not football. Words mean things, and this word
means football. Not that ghastly Yank business." It was clear that
this was a Continent-wide consensus among the European
contingent.
So... the answer to the second part of the original question is,
it works out OK. Thanks to the scores of foreigners who are here at
Heli-Expo, the minority of Americans who don't care about football,
and the hopeless aviation geeks that decided that Heli-Expo ought
to take precedence, the show is doing just fine.
Will they think more about the potential schedule of the Super
Bowl next year? Nope, it's already scheduled... fortunately for the
end of February (26-28) in Dallas. It should be OK unless the
football season undergoes a substantial growth spurt over the next
year.
(PS we cheated on the picture -- it's from the show webcam,
AFTER hours. We just couldn't resist)
(PPS Hognose asks -- who won, anyway? Not that I'm an
aviation geek or anything)
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.16.24)
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